This invention relates to a fantasy sports contest application, and more particularly, systems and methods are provided to assist a user to manage a fantasy sports contest team roster in a fantasy sports contest.
Athletic endeavors have long supported a broad range of secondary competitions which include wagering on the outcome of particular games and wagering on the performance of a particular player.
In known fantasy sports contests, the user selects a roster, a team, a particular individual, or a group of individuals in an athletic contest. The user of a fantasy sports contest system is given the ability to take on the role of a fictional general manager with powers which may include the ability to draft, trade, dismiss and otherwise manage the player or players on the user's fantasy sports team.
Conventionally, the rules in a fantasy sports contest are set by a fantasy sports contest system provider, or are set by a league commissioner who sets the rules under which a group of fantasy or rotisserie sports contest users compete against each other. For example, for every goal scored in real-life by a member of the user's fantasy soccer team, a conventional fantasy sports contest system might award five fantasy points to the user in the fantasy competition.
The fantasy sports contest system provider may also provide additional services, which include providing statistical information on real-life games and players, tracking users' scores in the fantasy contest, and enabling transactions and other interactions among the users.
A fantasy sports contest may be based on a variety of real-life athletic events, and typically involves selecting players from real-life team sports (e.g., football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer or rugby), selecting players from real-life sports where individuals compete (e.g., golf, tennis or automotive racing), or selecting participants from competitions involving animals (e.g., horse and dog racing). The user's selections are typically stored in the user's fantasy sports contest roster. The performance of these selections in real-life competition determines the user's performance in the fantasy sports competition.
A fantasy sports contest goes beyond traditional one-time wagering systems (e.g., selecting picks for the winners of a weekend's football games or picking who will win a most valuable player award).
In fantasy sports, the performance of the user's fantasy sports contest team is determined by the real-life performance of athletes on the user's fantasy sports contest team roster. Accordingly, the effective management of a fantasy sports contest team roster is the key to success in fantasy sports contests. Conventional fantasy sports contest systems offer little assistance to the user for managing a fantasy sports contest team roster beyond providing a skeletal apparatus for enabling and updating roster changes and transactions. This can have a detrimental effect on the enjoyment of fantasy sports contest users, especially novice or casual users. For novice or casual users, time commitment required to properly manage a fantasy sports contest team roster can lead to a loss of interest in the fantasy sports contest.
It would therefore be desirable to present a fantasy sports contest system that actively aids the user in managing a fantasy sports contest team roster.